APT Policy Review

During the 2023-2024 academic year, we hosted the Provost Dialogues series to start the discussion regarding revisions to the University’s Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) policy. These dialogues sought input from the campus community in key areas of measurement: 

• Quality and impact, 
• Collaborative work, 
• Community engagement, 
• Innovation and entrepreneurship, 
• Belonging and access, 
• Service, and 
• Teaching and mentoring. 

The goal is to align our values with our promotion and tenure reward system, as articulated in our Fearlessly Forward strategic plan.

Based on those Dialogues, input from various campus constituencies, and an APT Working Group comprised of faculty from each college and the Senate formed by Provost Rice, we focused on revising the University’s APT policy. Through that iterative process came the recommendation that we should create three distinct policies to replace our current APT policy:

• Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure policy focused solely on the six University titles that are tenure granting (assistant professor, associate professor, professor, agent, senior agent, and principal agent). Link to the Entire APT Policy Draft.
• Titles and Appointments policy focused on all approved University faculty titles. Link to the Entire Titles and Appointments Policy Draft.
• Discipline and Termination policy focused on tenured/tenure track and permanent status (Librarian) faculty. Link to the Entire Discipline and Termination Policy Draft.

Although separate, the three proposed policies are intended to work together and reference one another as appropriate.

Taking this approach allows the University to:

• Create a primary policy focused solely on tenured/tenure track faculty and reviews (APT).
• Focus on title and appointment-related matters separately from promotion/tenure. 
• Create a policy with procedures for termination, which we do not currently have.
• Create a peer process for discipline at the college/unit level rather than defaulting to a University process.

We are pleased to present the draft policies for your review and comment through this website, and hope that you will join us for our April 20 and April 27, 2026 Provost Dialogues to offer your input. The April 20 Provost Dialogue will provide an overview of the draft policies and the process that led to their creation. The April 27 Provost Dialogue will provide an opportunity to engage in specific areas of the draft APT policy for further feedback and input. While each policy is available for your review in its entirety, each policy is presented by section so that you may target your comments more directly.  

Once the 2025-2026 academic year ends, and based on your input, we will engage in revisions to the draft policies before we transmit the drafts to the Senate for review during the 2026-2027 academic year under our shared governance process.

We look forward to working with you as we move Fearlessly Forward to align our values with our rewards system through the APT process.